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1. Insulting a group of people because of their race, religion, philosophy of life, their
hetero- or homosexual nature or their bodily, psychical or intellectual handicap, Art.
137c Dutch Penal Code.
2. Inciting to hatred or discrimination of people or acting violently against people
because of their race, religion or philosophy of life, their gender, their hetero- or
homosexual nature or their bodily, psychical or intellectual handicap, Art. 137d Dutch
Penal Code.
3. Making public insulting utterances, not for realistic information, Art. 137e Dutch
Penal Code.
4. Support of discriminative activities, Art. 137f Dutch Penal Code.
5. Discrimination in connection with practising a profession or an office, Art. 137g
Dutch Penal Code.
6. Discriminating while practising official duties, Art. 429quater Dutch Penal Code.
Since some years, in the cases of Art. 137c and d the maximum prison sentence can be 2
years, in cases of Art. 137e and g one year and in cases of Art. 137f Dutch Penal Code 3
months. 9 In all cases falling under the Art. 137c-g instead of a prison sentence a fine can be
imposed, the maximum being a fine of the forth category for the more serious offences, what
means 16. 750 Euro, Art. 23 Dutch Penal Code. There do not exist special sentencing minima
in the Netherlands. The general minimum for prison sentences for a certain time is one day
for all offences and for fines it is 3 Euro. In consequence of these sentencing rules the
freedom for decision making of the Dutch judge is rather great.
Since the Instruction ‘Discrimination’ and the Guideline ‘Criminal proceeding in cases of
criminal discrimination’ of the Five Attorneys General 10 came into force some years ago
prosecution on these cases was intensified. In certain, in the guideline precisely summarized,
serious cases for example the public prosecutors are now obliged to demand a 25% higher
penalty. Furthermore, there were specialized public prosecutors appointed and two national
centres founded where expertise on discrimination problems is gathered.
9 Act of Parliament of 20 XI 2003, Staatsblad 2003, 480.
10 Richtlijn voor stafvordering discriminatie, Staatscourant 2000, 63 and 2003,61, Aanwijzing discriminatie,
Staatscourant 2003, 61. A new Instruction is about to be prepared.
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